History
Simple Kid's approach to recording involved recording to an 8-track cassette player then fed into his computer where he applied more modern techniques to create finished songs. He mixed and mastered the tracks on albums 1 and 2 on his own equipment. His style of remixing and sampling has been compared to Fatboy Slim's, although Simple Kid used his own recordings as sources. More often his sound is compared to the similarly eclectic and deliberately ramshackle Beck.
Simple Kid's influences included folk, country (he prominently featured banjos and slide guitar in his work), glam rock (particularly T. Rex) and late 1960s big pop arrangements of records, such as The Beatles's White Album.
Before becoming Simple Kid, McFeely was a member of The Young Offenders. Forming when he was 17, the band was composed of friends made while growing up in Cork Ireland. The group attempted to release an album in America but met with failure and broke up.
Although having spent considerable time in America before becoming Simple Kid, his popularity today is mostly limited to the United Kingdom and Ireland. His touring was based out of London and he has played support for R.E.M. and Kings Of Leon,Snow patrol at Ward Park amongst others.
Television appearances included Later... with Jools Holland, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Late Late Show and Other Voices on RTE. He was also the subject of a Channel 4 (4 Play) short documentary and appeared on TFI Friday with The Young Offenders.
His second album, 2, was released by Country Gentleman Recordings in October 2006 in the UK, and by Yep Roc Records in August 2007 in the US. 2 was included in Mojo Magazine's top 50 albums of the year, was CD of the week in The Times culture section and had positive reviews in the NME, The Guardian, Time Out and the Independent on Sunday. Rolling Stone also featured Simple Kid as a breakthrough act for 2007.
The track "Lil' King Kong" from 2 was featured in a Saturn automobile advertisement in the US, as well as in an advertisement in the UK for the mobile phone operator Orange.
"Lil' King Kong" also featured in the film, Jumper in 2008.
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